8k vs 5k+ latency (and quick 5k vs 8k impressions

I was talking to Sebastian from MRTV and he wanted me to confirm here what he also sees.

I have both the 5k+ and 8k and am able to test a subtle latency issue sebastian was talking about here: Can You Run Skyrim VR On The Pimax 8K / 5K Plus With A GTX 1080ti? Pimax 8k vs Vive Pro Comparison! - YouTube

Just wanted to say after having more time with the 8k vs. the 5k+ he was completely correct that it has more latency than the 5k+!

As an example: if you look at a single star in the default pimax home environment and wobble your head back and forth a star moves about maybe 20-25 pixels on the 8k (I would estimate 20-25ms latency then) where as on the 5k+ maybe 2 or 3 pixels max just like on the Vive and Rift (0-5ms timewarped/reprojected latency estimate on vive/rift I am estimating)

I reported on the pimax developer forum about the 8k latency and they are looking into it. Guessing it’s probably the upscaler as even the Oculus go at 60hz or 72hz doesn’t have this sort of wobble. If you haven’t used many other headsets you may never notice though, but I did.

Also just wanted to let you guys know. The 5k+ is clearly the better headset (and best headset on the market) the clarity is great compared to the 8k, low sde. Blacks could of course look better but it’s worth it. (Really wish it had the blacks and colors of the odyssey+'s oled, or anti-sde!) I don’t even mind the mild black smear on odyssey+ tbh, worth it. But it’s fine. 5k+ reminds me of an oculus go’s sde and blacks in a way but maybe better which isn’t that bad.

I will be showing off the headsets at the Chicago Pimax backer meetup tomorrow and will try to show the backers what I see with the 8k. (it’s extremely mild, but I feel even 20ms of smallest latency can subcosciously affect feelings of “presence” in vr)

Anyways, thank you for the accurate reporting Sebastian! I have to say I am in complete agreement with your reviews.

Edit: Doc_ok (vr researcher) messaged me with a short clip from VRLA where he covers motion-to-photon latency VRLA Summer Expo 2016: How VR Works A Perceptual Point of View - YouTube

In his message he said “That discussion directly references impact motions, same idea as the “knock test” or “wobble test.””

Edit2: Update 12/27/18: Another test you guys can try to make this easier to spot:

When in steamvr home put your left eye where right eye is supposed to be in the hmd (Yes this sounds weird but hear me out! lol) hold the virtual vive controller up on front of you and stare at it. And make your right eye look at the real vive controller in real life, left eye virtual one. The two should converge into one controller.

Now that the virtual one and real one line up perfectly, wave the controller around and see if your left eye lags behind the real controller on right eye. I did this yesterday only on the 5k+ so far and it was a perfect match. I could count maybe one or two pixels delay.

You shoud also wobble the hmd in your hand when doing this test and see if the virtual controller wobbles compared to real life one! On 5k+ it basically holds perfectly in place like real life controller in right eye. tldr; 8k will wobble a lot when you shake hmd compared to real life controller doing this sort of mixed reality test.

Update:1/12/19 road to vr confirmed 8k latency after ces here https://www.roadtovr.com/pimax-8k-5k-plus-big-improvements-hands-on-ces-2019/ pimax seems unfamiliar with the issue he said.

22 Likes

Great that you could confirm it. The 8k with that added latency absolutely cannot be recommended to anybody who does not only want to watch movies. I will point that out in my full written review of the 8k. @Heliosurge @TheSwanCollective

10 Likes

Too much SDE. I’ll keep my 8K.
@anon74848233, could you tell us what the Pimax 8K’s latency is? Thank you.

3 Likes

@Heliosurge can you also test this is the default pimax home environment? Could be latency but could also be settings/hardware configuration.

Agreed as @karrtoon told me most to the majority will not notice this. He explauned to me me how to look for it. But with the move haven’t had a chance to check it out.

It’s why we only finally have had someone able to confirm what @mixedrealityTV has seen.

@Arno it will likely be about a week before I can give it a try. Karrtoon even said it maybe fixable as it could be related to rendering technique.

For me it’s a non issue. Accirding to fpsvr it stays below 20ms with the right settings if it’s reporting accurately.

2 Likes

Fpsvr cannot measure motion to photon latency.

It’s absolutely no surprise the upscaler adds latency, it’s in fact one of the main reasons I chose a 5K over an 8K.

5 Likes

For those convinced the 5K is “clearly better” than the 8K.

  1. If the 5K+ is clearly better, why is it cheaper than the 8K model?

  2. If the 5K is clearly better why will it improve less than the 8K once more powerful GPU’s emerge and SS can be maxed out on the upscaled 8K which won’t be possible on the 1440p native 5K+ model?

  3. If the 5K+ is clearly the better headset why does it have worse SDE that can never be fixed and that some people say ruins their VR experience Vs the 8K?

  4. If the 5K+ is clearly the better headset for gaming why is it not better for watching movies as well - as a better headset wouldn’t only dominate in a single area, but multiple areas?

In my view the 5K and 8K both have advantages and disadvantages and neither is ‘clearly better’. It’s instead all down to personal preference.

11 Likes

One of my reasons as well. Surely it adds some additional milliseconds.

1 Like

This is easy explained. First pimax made the 8k and the 5k. The 8k is clearly better. At this point the kickstarter was already over for several months and they had to stick to the plan to make a 8k. Perhaps they also already had contracts with the display manufacturers or other manufacturers for the 8k. Then they got hold of another display and made some experiments and it turned out far better then expected. The 5k**+** was born. They decided to let the backers benefit from that and switched 5k backers to 5k+ and gave 8k backers the choice to switch to 5k+. (And I am really thankful for that.)
Also it turns out this new display is cheaper than the 8k display. And the 5k+ dosn’t need an upscaler. This also adds to the cost.

So in conclusion: The price (or the number in the name) is no argument for being the better headset. It just turned out that way.

3 Likes

I am not a pro. But still I have problems to believe a supersampled and then downscaled and then upscaled picture can ever be better than a native rendered image. And new GPUs emerge very very slowly. By the time we can render this high resolutions the 8k is already years old and other and better headsets are on the market. (like the 8k-x)

4 Likes

If SDE is the most important factor for you the 8k is the right choice. But the difference between the two HMDs is not that big and many reported the 5k+ being sharper and clearer. In my opionion SDE is one of many factors for a good headset. Sure, it’s an important one. But performance is too.

1 Like

Because the world is like that. If the 5k+ is better in more points than the 8k it is the “clearly better headset” even if movies are better in the 8k. In my opinion watching movies is the least important point. Why would I go into VR to watch flat stuff?? But I can understand that others think differently about that.

EDIT: I forgot 3d movies and p***. Here my argument is wrong, but still: There is no positional tracking in those which still spoils the experience a little bit. And for p*** there are also games which get better and better from month to month and will one day have movie quality (I hope so, VAM for example.)

1 Like

-no color banding
-no dots
-better brightness
-better blacks
-better color temperature (status quo)
-less sde.

Its all about priorities…
I consider a strict distinction between features that are suitable for watching movies and those that are suitable for gaming to be pointless.

nevertheless: many thanks to Sebastian and karrtoon for working out another important point.

3 Likes

but apparently they are shitty displays. Dead pixels, different people complain about different colors of each panel. Now there is a new one, one side has a purple glow. Someone with light bleeding in elite dangerous…

2 Likes

Amen :slight_smile: also mentioned the quality of the panels of the 5k+ Only the idea that they are vulnerable for dead pixels is not o good feeling if you got one.

1 Like

i think everbody needs to switch to the 8K now we still can,because of the bad displays from the 5kplus

2 Likes

The problem I have with the 8K is that he is an under achiever, was suppose to win all the match’s but does only when the crowd cheers are loud enough :wink:

If it was a Apple product it would stay in the LAB until the 8K+, but it still has some appeal for some people because of the lesser SDE and colors

Well I for one am glad no one recommended me getting the 8k and I made my choice based on my own insights and am glad I choose the 8k to say it can’t be or should not be recommend for anything but watching movies over the 5k is just wrong in my experience. I’m currently using the Pimax 8k to play SkyrimVR with a 1080ti and the blacks are almost tar black the colors are better than my Vive and the performance with the proper settings and computer are excellent. PiTool 90 large Fov max render scale 2 and Steam render at 114% with smooth frames and after some time experience this game with over 80 mods. I can honestly say the the Pimax 8k is a great device and I’m not the only one who prefers it over the 5k and yes for gaming. Please stop with your attempts to dismiss the Pimax 8k. It is just causing division in the community of forum backers, who should be all supporting Pimax at this time.

16 Likes

But no more than a few (1-2ms), or the Pimax 8K would make everyone sick, and that is (was) not the case.

1 Like

If it really goes 80Hz, the Pimax 8K has 12.5 ms of latency maximum, and the 5K+, at 90Hz, 11.2 ms.

1 Like